


You Wouldn't Download a Sword

by BurntBeebs



Category: Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-09 16:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17410187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntBeebs/pseuds/BurntBeebs
Summary: Mint always wanted a netnavi of her own, and now that dream will finally come true, but with a twist: her new navi is a darkloid! Is this a bond that can endure, or is deletion the only way to handle cyber criminals?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm bsing a lot of this since I'm mostly going off of the anime with a few game elements mixed in. Bear with me in that aspect. I like to reference the original sub quite a bit, but for my sake I like using English names. Also I have no idea how coding or anything related to computer science works, so any suggestions or corrections regarding tech terminology used would be immensely helpful. Along those notes, any corrections or criticism regarding my grammar in general is incredibly welcome and appreciated as well!

**Chapter 1 -Ghost Data-**

Den-Tech City's Scilabs had finally reopened their doors to their ambassador program, once again allowing high school and college students to study among them. With the threat of Laser Man and Nebula finally taken care of, and with Shade Man also out of the way, there was a time of peace and now it was open for these students to pursue a career as the city's newest trailblazers in coding and navi technology.

One of these students in question was Mint, who was currently in one of the computer laboratories a few rooms down from the main lab, collecting data in the cyberworld for analysis and as framework for any side projects.

She was in control of a dummy navi used for collecting this information known as 'Data 4.03', and right now it was roaming around a distant corner when through its eyes she caught sight of a dense cloud of pixels, blurred and shifting listlessly.

Looked like stray data, though there was a vaguely humanoid shape to it, and there were flecks of white, gold and red amidst it. At the inputted command, the proxy vessel collected the blurred cloud and was logged out.

Outside the monitor on the table, there was a glass container connected to the computer by a thick cord. The data was transmitted over and soon was manifested as that very same cloud, now in the real world.

Her curiosity was piqued, brushing a strand of violet locks out of her face as she leaned closer to study it. There was no real way of making out just what it was from sight alone, so running a quick diagnostic revealed it was a program of some kind, a Netnavi judging from how complex it was.

It was bizarrely encrypted, almost like a virus, yet not quite. The files that used to have any sort of designation were scrambled beyond recognition, so there was no chance of decoding what this program was until some base level repairs were made.

Well, this was certainly going to be a fixer upper, but it’d be a perfect project to test out her knowledge! Ordinarily it would be quite a daunting task, way out of her league, and with good reason. At this stage of decay one would be better off building a navi from scratch!

But she was learning with the masters and also had every resource available to her here, not to mention all of this top of the line equipment that would make any techie salivate. It was more than enough for even a novice to put together fractured data such as this!

...Maybe.

She plugged in several other cables to the fuzzy data’s container and set to work. A few moments later Dr. Hikari entered the room carrying a handful of folders, and he noticed his interim student fiddling around with...whatever that was.

Well, it was something alright. It would be interesting to see what his newest pupil brews up with such tools at her disposal.

“Ah, Mint, hard at work I see. What’s that you got there?” he asked, resting a hand on the desk, studying the container.

“Hello doctor! Uhh...apparently not a what, but a whom. I’m just not entirely sure _who_ it is yet. Data’s too mangled to tell.” she shrugged, tapping in a few commands into the growing list of queued prompts.

Dr. Hikari rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he looked over her shoulder and glossed over the files reading out from her specimen. Odd...there were no specific signatures at all. Normally navis would have some line of code or a file that reads out their creator, model and other rudimentary data. This had none of that. Even the most garbled navi data would relay at least a miniscule piece of that information.

No such thing here. He furrowed his brows, leaning over and motioning at the monitor.

“Could you open that file?”

She nodded in response, selecting the file in question. Just as he suspected. Nothing...and yet..

“Click the corner over there.”

With a brief glance at him filled with visible confusion, she complied, clicking a seemingly empty space only to bring up walls and walls of encrypted text, at which she yelped in surprise. Dr. Hikari’s eyes narrowed.

“Hmm….just as I thought...Mint, your ‘navi’ is a darkloid.”

“A darkloid?!” she squeaked, feeling her cheeks heat up at the stupidity of letting this slip by.

“Oh God, I didn’t somehow let any viruses in with it, did I?! I’m so sorry!” she sputtered out wave after wave of apologies and the doctor’s stern expression softened, a small chuckle escaping him.

He put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. “No, don’t worry. We have very high grade defenses against any attacks, not to mention the best virus busters in the world on call. Anyways, in its current state, this darkloid is just a figurative and literal piece of cyber dust drifting in the wind. It poses no danger right now."

“Well…” a sigh, “at least there's not any danger that came with this fella…” she trailed off, leaning back in her chair and looking over the pixelated cloud.

She glanced back at Dr. Hikari as she began thinking. It was almost as if he looked straight into her mind at the current thought, because he suddenly piped up, with something he didn't think needed to be said.

"If you were planning to rebuild this darkloid, I'm afraid I have to put a halt on this project."

She opened her mouth to respond, but paused for another moment. She already felt ridiculous enough for salvaging a cyber criminal accidentally, so why not go the extra mile?

"I know...but...would it really be that dangerous? We don't even know who it is, it could be Bubble Man for all we know."

"Bubble man is still confirmed to be at large, so he's out there somewhere. This right here could be the leftovers of Shade Man, or even Laser Man! The darkloids that were deleted, it was for a good reason, Mint. It'd be counterproductive to bring them back now. It's not a risk we should be taking."

"A risk we could be taking, what now?" a new voice rang. It was Famous, approaching the two with a cup of coffee in hand, taking a sip as he sauntered over, “what's all the hubbub?" his attention was drawn to the cloud of pixels.

"What is that?" he asked, huddling by the laptop and looking over the data.

"It's a darkloid." Mint answered in a mutter, slumping lower into her seat, fighting the urge to bury her face in her oversized lab coat. “Found it using 403.”

"A darkloid?" he parroted, quirking a brow, "interesting. You think this was one of Lan's marks, or Chaud's?"

Mint perked a bit at his tone. He sounded strangely enthused. Obviously it wasn't just her picking that up, Dr. Hikari had a face that was just screaming for him to stop in his tracks before going any further on this topic.

"I don't know, maybe if they were whole, we'd be able to ask them." she replied coyly.

Dr. Hikari made a face, looking from Mint to Famous. NO, NO-

"Funny you say that! You know, I've always wondered what it would be like to take a good look at a darkloid's coding, especially the memory files. You can't exactly invite one over for tea and crumpets and ask for their life story, but what we have here is quite the opportunity-"

"No, Famous. Absolutely not!" Dr. Hikari cut in, "if this navi was deleted in this way, it had to have been for a good reason. You can't tell me you want to rebuild it and-"

"Why not? If worst comes to worst, it could always be quarantined, and even if that fails we could just call in Lan."

"You did say you have two of the best busters on call," Mint chipped in, "what could possibly go wrong with them here? Anyways, I've always wanted a navi of my own, how cool would it be to have a darkloid as my navi?"

Dr. Hikari gaped at her. The audacity! Famous was fighting to not grin from ear to ear.

"You mean to tell me you not only want to rebuild a darkloid, but use it as a navi?! I don't even think that's possible, for a myriad of reasons!"

"We've never had a chance to find out, until now..." Famous began, though he cut himself off.

Dr. Hikari's eyes gleamed, his glasses taking on an eerie shine as he thought this over. One part of him was reeling at the thought of these two actually wanting to rebuild one of what are basically all of net society's public enemies, and to domesticate it on top of that!

The scientist in him was screaming with curiosity, wanting to find out if this is indeed possible to achieve. He looked over to Mint, who had her hands clasped and was giving him the sparkliest puppy dog eyes. Even Famous was giving him an imploring look.Two absolute children.

After a moment of silence, Dr. Hikari gave a curt nod of approval.

"Alright, it'll take a good talking to with commissioner Kifune… but I'll allow it. It'll be an excellent advancement whether it succeeds or not, so I'm sure they'll greenlight it as well. _But_!” he raised his index finger, “I want full, detailed reports regarding _every single step of this process_.”

Famous practically squealed, but luckily Mint did it for them both, hopping out of her seat and giving Dr. Hikari a hug. He jolted, but gave a small laugh and ruffled her hair.

"Thank you! I promise I'll keep a close eye on it, and I'll fill the hell out of those reports!" she chirped.

"Good. Alright, so I'll leave you to it." with that, he dismissed himself, though Famous stayed behind.

She could feel the almost childlike excitement radiating off of him as he loomed over her shoulder to study the encrypted coding. He hummed as he pulled a chair over and sat, plugging in another device to the jar as well. He relayed some info to Mint and she typed it into the main batch of files.

When a considerable amount of time passed and enough consolidations were run, soon they were able to access the source files, and found visual files. Though distorted almost beyond comprehension, there was enough very scrambled data of the last days of the darkloid's life for them to watch. Through lower than jpegy, vhs quality they could make out white and gold arms with black gloves brandishing a blade at Megaman, strafing to and fro with ease in the air, another instance assaulting Thunder Man (who was wearing a ridiculous costume, they both noted with a snicker), standing before Shade Man among a few other darkloids, then in some kind of tomb looking area on the receiving end of an attack from Mist Man- and suddenly the video shut off.

They attempted to open more, but the files refused to cooperate.

“Must’ve crashed..” Mint grumbled, plugging in another cable, this time inserting the port into the tower beneath the desk. “Certainly seemed like a pleasant one though. This oughta be fun.”

The question of whether or not she’d be up to making this her navi after witnessing such aggression first hand began nibbling at her thoughts, but just as quickly determination to make this happen quashed those concerns.

Famous leaned back in his seat, looking up to the ceiling for a moment, before glancing back to the jar. For him even that awful quality account was all he needed to know.

“Well, that was more than enough to tell me who we’re dealing with here. This is Sword Man.”

“Sword Man huh? That sounds pretty cool.” she took a brief moment from her typing to wiggle her fingers before folding her arms to rest her chin on them, studying the now identified mass of pixels. “Can’t wait to see the whole thing with a name like that.”

Famous chuckled, rolling himself in his chair over to another desk, opening a drawer and pulling out a manilla folder and placing it  between the two of them. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

“That’s the full report on our encounters with him. Consider it a sneak peek for what you’ll be dealing with in the near future, if you're still up to it.”

She pulled the file over, opening it with a moment of hesitation, taking a quick look at the jar before glossing through all the papers and photographs.

“Oh! _Ohh_ …” she grimaced as she read through the reports. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. She glared over at the jar, pointing a finger at it.

“ _Not cool, dude_!”

Famous chuckled lightly, “Yeah, he was a right pain in the belly, hot headed and stubborn and mean as any darkloid comes...” he said this with the same tone one would use when they recall an old friend. She couldn’t tell if it was sarcasm or rogue navis were a special interest of his.

“I can’t imagine he’ll be very cooperative when he comes to, if he even makes a proper recovery that is. From the looks of it he was got pretty good.”

“I kinda wish I had gotten Bubble Man,” she chuckled. It was a joke, but also her trying to lighten up the growing uneasiness in her gut.

Yes, there was indeed more doubts about whether or not this could be managed. In light of this information, this would not be an easy one to work with at all. But then again, would any darkloid be easy to work with?

Famous seemed to sense her discouragement. He glanced over to the computer, where Sword Man's memories and what remained of his whole being essentially was laid out before them.

“You know, I could always clear his cache of these past experiences and his time under Shade Man’s command...after backing them up to another destination, of course.” he offered.

Mint perked, twisting around to side eye him.

“Wh...really? I get the darkloids are bad and all, and this guy is an mvp in the douchebag brigade there, but...I dunno, that doesn’t sound right to do…”

“What should we do then, leave him violent and angry and with a vendetta against Lan? And everyone else here? Would you really like to deal with a multiple head case?” he quirked a brow. He knew full well her answer, but he had to hear it for himself.

“Well…” she genuinely had to think about this, but after a moment of deliberation, she reached a decision. “I just think that deleting all that would be deleting what makes a darkloid, or a navi, who they are. Isn’t this the whole point? We want to get insight into a real darkloid’s mind, don’t we?”

“Hmmm...you’re right.” he nodded with a small smile. “That would be the easy way out, the disingenuous way out...but still, this isn’t exactly someone you could make small talk with.”

“We don’t know that.”

He snorted, “Do you want to ask him about his day?” Now that was an amusing thought.

“Kinda, yeah. Maybe see if he wants to try being a netnavi. Find out what Shade Man and Laser Man paid him, and double it.”

“I don’t know what you can pay darkloids with aside from dark chips.”

“What about potato chips?” she replied as she turned to him, deadpan. After a few seconds of a stoic eye to eye, she caved and cackled and they shared a bout of dorky laughter. Just as quickly he sobered up.

“In all seriousness, I guess we could give it a shot, especially since Laser Man and Shade Man have been terminated, and with no real ties left, there’s no promise of loyalty to any straggling cause. Who knows? But, I do hope you know, once he’s completed, he will be your responsibility from then on.”

She furrowed her brows and nodded. This was as unnerving as it was exciting.

“I know. Let's get on it.”

Famous grinned and nodded, turning back to the other laptop and cracked his knuckles as they began their experiment.


	2. Reboot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies in advance for the everything, because this is about where my writing deteriorates, and it'll only get worse from here on out, as I can only write oneshots. AND ANOTHER THING, big thank you and much love to you enjoying my work and especially you who let me know this <3
> 
> //language warning for some dirty little utensils.//

**Chapter 2 - Reboot -**

  
The next couple of days of the process were rather uneventful, save for a few times Sword Man was nearly obliterated due to a bug or failed line of code. Other than that, it was mostly running what was completed and checking it for errors. It took all of Famous’s efforts to _not_ completely hijack the project, and instead simply provide Mint with the proper insight and guidance and allow her to lay out and initiate all of the information needed. The process of repairing was going so well that the consolidated code was not only running properly now, but was already being put to use reassembling him. And so now his torso, an arm and most of the two swords on his back were visible in the container.  
  
Considering he rebuilt Fire Man using the same sequences, Famous was surprised to find his method worked on a darkloid as well. This alone provided valuable information, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that navis and darkloids shared very similar base coding. He wondered just how deep those similarities ran. Mint had already been jotting down these findings, the papers detailing this week’s progress filling yet another spiral notebook and being shoved into a thickening binder.   
  
It continued on this way until one day, it seemed his physical restoration was complete. Mint stared intently at him, leaning over and around the jar and looking at him from every angle. There were three blades, one was red and currently in the torso, the other two were yellow and blue and hanging behind him, and both arms were present, as well as his emblem...but….  
  
“That’s it? You don’t have any legs?” she wondered aloud with the quirk of a brow, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised...I suppose you get points for being EXACTLY what your name advertises.” she shrugged, looking over the folder notes once more. The information she compiled herself hadn't been enough to go off of, but then again she really wasn’t sure what she had been expecting either. Since her report for the time being was finished and a defrag was being run, she figured it’d be a good time to brush up on another type of coding. She'd take a glance over at the jar now and then, smiling to herself that they had actually managed to put together a darkloid.   
  
The next day, not much else had happened, per the routine she had developed since working on this process, she’d come in, say good morning to her murderous new friend, talk about the day before, then begin taking notes and doing as much as was possible. Except today would shake up this new routine. Dr. Hikari showed up, followed by his son, Lan. Mint had her nose in a book covering a subject Mr. Famous would usually provide information on, but since he was out, this would do. Apparently the two swapped out minding the lab. 

Dr. Hikari cleared his throat to get her attention, at which she hopped out of her chair, setting the book next to the jar and giving a small wave.

“Hello Dr. Hikari! Is...is that Lan?!”

Lan beamed, rubbing the back of his head, “Sure am, the one, the only-”

“Do you have Mega Man with you?! Can I see him?!” she asked excitedly, eyeing the PET clipped to his waist. He nearly fell over.

“Wow Mega Man, guess you’ve got another fan.” Dr. Hikari chuckled.

“Ah, I’m sorry! I know you two are a team and all that...I’ve just always wanted to see him in person. Ugh, that was rude of me, sorry. L-let’s just pretend that didn’t happen...I’m Mint.” she held out her hand and he took it. At that, Lan’s big dopey grin returned.

“Your hand is smaller than mine! How old are you? You don’t look a day older than me!”

She eeped, face beginning to flush, brows screwing together as she gave his hand a furious shake.

“I’m a _college student!_ I’m here on the interim program, just how old do you think I am?!”

“Uhhh I dunno, thirteen?”

She yanked her hand away like it had just been burnt, sputtering, and with a rosy tint beginning to nip at her cheeks. She looked like she was resisting the urge to strangle Lan in that moment.

“I think it’s a compliment to be seen as younger than your actual age. You're very youthful and vibrant!” Mega Man piped up quickly, at which Lan chuckled nervously.

“Heheh, y-yeah, what he said,” Lan added, before looking down at his navi and whispering to him, “ _thanksforthesavebuddy_ ”.

Mega Man nodded and Lan raised the PET to show him off, at which Mint’s anger melted away instantly.

She brought her palms up to her cheeks, eyes large as she fawned over him. “Wow you’re even cuter in person!” she cooed. The navi blushed at the attention, rubbing his arm bashfully.

“Hehhh..thanks.”

“Aw come on Mega Man, we’re not cute, we’re the coolest!”

“I didn’t say _you_ were cute!” Mint hissed at him, before turning back to adore the helmeted navi. Lan made a face, before glancing over at his dad, who raised his hands with a placating smile.

“How do you put up with this chick? She’s like a reverse Maddy….” he whispered at him.

“You need to learn a little more tact when talking to ladies, son…” the doctor replied sotto voce.

“They get angry when you say they look old, angry when you say they look young...ya just can’t win then, can you?”

He shrugged in response, at which Lan groaned.

After bit of chatting with Mega Man, Mint turned back to Dr. Hikari, suddenly sporting a very sardonic expression.

“I’m guessing you brought them here to see my little _project_?”

Dr. Hikari gave her an affirming nod, and she stepped aside and held out her arm, gesturing toward the table.

“Lan, you see that right there? That’s Sword Man. Or...what’s left of him right now I guess you could say. I found him while I was gathering data from the Cyberworld.” she announced matter-of-factly. She was doing her best to keep her voice even.

Lan swooped in for a closer look in an instant, looking him over in a state of disbelief.

“Whoaah, no way! I thought he was toast after we got through with him!”

“Well Lan, when navis are deleted, they tend to leave behind traces of themselves in the cyberworld. It’s referred to as ghost data.” Dr. Hikari explained as he followed them over.

“In a way, navis that are deleted are never truly gone so long as some of this is gathered. And with enough effort, they can be rebuilt.” Mega Man added in. It was something he had first hand experience with, remembering the time he was deleted with a suppressed shudder. Lan nodded, gently running his thumb along the PET, a comforting gesture both for himself and his navi as he no doubt had the same awful memory come back up just now. Thankfully that was in the past, and should that ever happen again, seems they're more prepared to handle it now, at least.

“That’s right, Mega Man. If it’s gathered in time, there’s a good chance the navi could be rebuilt, but usually that’s not the case, and it’s left to drift around. After a while it eventually scatters and is lost to the world, for good. My guess is our _friend_ here hasn’t been exposed to the cyber elements long enough since his deletion to allow the data to dissipate...either that or he is one ridiculously stubborn little phantom."

“Wait, hold up though, but he was deleted in _our_ world, not the cyberworld. Dimensional area or not, how the heck did he end up back in there?”

“He may have been swept up in a wireless signal of some kind. We can't be too sure about the details, but I suppose we’ll find out when he’s capable of speaking with us, which should be soon, his recovery is almost complete.”  
  
Lan shook his head and rubbed at his ear, making sure he actually just heard that.

“What?! So now we’re _rebuilding_ the darkloids that tried to kill us? He attacked Maylu! Are we really just gonna get Shade Man’s band back together for him?!” Lan’s voice had reached an almost hysterical pitch. “Why would you do that?! He’s a creep and he should stay a shapeless cloud of pixels!”

Mint cringed, rubbing the back of her neck. Yeah...that was pretty awkward. You don’t simply repair someone that tried to kill you and your girlfriend do you?

“Err...if it makes you feel better, he’s going to be considerably weakened, and _alsohemightormightnotbecomemynetnavi_. You won’t even have to see him around if you don’t want to.” now it was her turn to speak tactlessly. She grit her teeth, worried about how he’d take that.

Dr. Hikari placed his hand on Lan’s shoulder reassuringly, looking down at his son sympathetically. He looked more confused than anything now. After detangling the alphabet soup she had just spilled out, he wasn’t even sure what to be more distraught about, an old foe reappearing, or the fact it was going to be made into a navi.

“Lan, the reason I asked you here was so you’d be made aware of this, and so you wouldn’t be caught off guard with the sudden return of a familiar face. He’s being rebuilt mostly as he was, yes, but we are taking several other precautions with him, the biggest and final fail-safe being...you.”

“So you’re saying I can delete him a second time if something goes wrong with this little experiment. Gotcha.” he said this in something of a dazed state. At least he’d get to delete him if he tried anything. That was somewhat comforting.

“Sounds pretty neat,” Mega Man quipped in, hoping to further assuage Lan, “I think even a darkloid deserves a second chance. Hopefully it won’t come to a fight.”

Lan sighed, “Sure, whatever you say...but..are all of you _really_ okay with this? You remember how many times he went on the attack...not just us, but on _Maylu_ . What’s stopping him from going even more psycho when he’s fixed?”

“Well, we’re in the process of installing a few inhibitors. If he does decide to rampage, it’ll be about as damaging as a Mettaur.”

A crooked smirk appeared on Lan’s face. “Okay, that’s one possibility. What if he bolts instead? Do I just let him go?”

“Uh, no, we’ve already installed a tracking program, and he will be limited to certain networks, and this PET.” he fished the device in question out of his lab coat pocket. It looked very similar to Lan’s, though of course the coloration was matched to the corresponding navi, and the emblem adorning it was different. Rather than Mega Man’s insignia, it was that of the darkloid’s, the gold and white tip of a blade. Mint squeaked as he held it out to her, hands trembling and eyes as wide and shimmering. He gave a motion with it telling her to take it, at which she did, lifting it as delicately as one would a newborn child. 

“I’ve been working on this since I spoke with Kifune that day. He’s...dubious of this, to say the least, but also very curious about how this will play out and what it could mean for how we handle cyber crimes. This will be his only means of travel, and so that dictates he’s not allowed anywhere else but this for the time being. As of today, Mint, you are now officially this darkloid’s sponsor, and operator.”

She looked on the verge of tears, but took a breath, composing herself as she held the PET close to her chest. She gave a firm nod in acknowledgement.

“T-thank you! I won't let you down!" she turned her gaze to the device. "Wow…my own PET...”

He put his hand on Lan's shoulder, gently clapping it, and gave her a warm smile. 

“Anything to help a student along. Besides, you’ve got your work cut out for you. When he’s completed, that’s when the _real_ fun begins. Since he seems to be coming along, I want that status report finished before he’s reactivated.”  
  
With that, he said his goodbyes, and both he and Lan exited the room. A little after that, Famous came in, eating a burger. If it wasn’t for the fact she has seen them in the same room before, she’d swear they were the same person with the way they seemed to seamlessly swap out shifts.

“Oh hey, he gave you the PET already. Nice.”

“Yeah...Can’t believe he had been working on it the whole time.”

“Heh, yeah, he doesn’t want to admit it, but he's just as excited to see if this’ll work. Well, I’ll be in my office, let me know if you need anything.”

With that he left her to work on her paper, and she was giggling to herself about all this the whole time she was working. Unfortunately she couldn’t finish her report before the labs were closing for the day, and so she had to leave her soon to be navi there when she went home.

That night was relatively sleepless, filled with anxiousness and excitement and fear and curiosity all at once. In the soft rays of moonlight slinking in through the open window, Mint shifted under her covers for the umpteenth time, rolling onto her side to look at the device on the night stand. There were so many things that could still go wrong, but the most troubling of all was that all this work was for nothing and the darkloid would somehow go kaput when activated, disintegrate and fall apart back into cyber dust.

Nah, that couldn’t possibly happen, she was working under Yuichiro Hikari, son of Tadashi Hikari, THE actual pioneer of netnavi technology, _and_ Mister Famous. She was guided by the titans of their field, and had the best equipment possible, so there was no way anything could go down the tubes  _that_ badly...right?

Right.

She reached over and took the PET from her dresser, raising it up to gaze at it under the gentle silver beams, another giddy smile crossing over her features as she stifled a giggle..Eventually, and after one final, alarming thought about her unfinished work, she settled down and was able to drift off to sleep.

The next morning Mint woke up ahead of her alarm, and after a quick breakfast she headed straight to the lab. She greeted Dr. Hikari and made a beeline for the computer room, eagerly anticipating the reboot of her new navi. She sat down and got to work as soon as she could, plugging in a cable to a different tower where she typed in a sequence and hit initialize. It was not going to be a speedy process, as there were still many routines that had to be run. She busied herself by reading a book, browsing the web or playing built in games on the computer or organizing files in between the frequent checks to the process.

After Dr. Hikari left this office on another errand, Mint was left with Famous, who was at work in his office adjacent to the room. She herself had wandered down to the cafeteria to grab a quick lunch, returning and eating a salad as she sat and leaned back in her chair, looking over to the large windows. The sky already a fiery amber, lit by the dying rays of the sun, which was already on its way behind most of the buildings on the horizon. It was surreal how quickly the day went by, and yet it still didn't feel fast enough.  
  
And then finally, there was a soft beep on the computer that signified the process was complete. Soon after, the crossguard of the red sword lit up and two yellow, square shaped eyes appeared, and then a deep scowl beneath.  
  
A low groan sounded from the container, grainy and compressed in quality. Her eyes widened, leaning down closer to look, barely containing a bright smile. It worked! _It’s ALIIIIVE!_

“What the hell are you looking at?!”

Her smile twisted into a frown. Great first impression. 

“Lovely introduction. I’m Mint and I had a hand in rebuilding you. You’re welcome!” she huffed, crossing her arms.

“Ooohh, it’s _you._ Well...thanks for _butchering me,_ you little shit!”

She flinched at that, before slamming her hand down on the table, brows scrunching up as she glared at the darkloid, jabbing a finger at the glass.

“Watch your language! And besides, that _butchering_ as you call it, was _necessary to repair you_ , you were scrambled up really bad! Do you have no sense of gratitude?”

“You invaded ALL of my personal data, so what do you think?! Besides, gratitude would imply I _wanted_ this. You should've just let me rot in peace you little twerp!” he snarled.

Her frown deepened, and she rubbed the back of her head furiously. Well, isn't he just a charming one? She put her hands on her hip, taking a deep breath.

“If you really mean that, you're one stupid son of a pixel and I feel sorry for you.” she replied calmly, crossing her arms once more and turning away. The sword darkloid growled, clenching his fists.

“What's that supposed to mean?!” he spat, “you're a damn fool if you think a retooled life as someone’s little slave is better than deletion! Get over yourself!”

She blinked, turning her gaze back over to him, eyes wide.  
  
“Yeah that's right, I could hear everything, and I know all about your little project. That  _is_ what you wanted, isn't it? You were just hoping if you put me back together everything would be peachy keen and I'd do your bidding! If _I'm_ stupid, _you're downright retarded!”_

She felt her face flush, brows furrowing as he laughed cruelly with the satisfaction that he was right, and they both knew it. After a quiet moment, the shock wore off enough for her to respond to that. 

“Hey! I-it's not like that! ...I mean granted the thought of reconstructing and repurposing a navi is cool, but it's not like I wanted to help you just for that reason, you idiot! It's because I felt bad for you, but I see now it was misplaced sympathy, because you're a rude douche and I _should've_ left you to waste away.” she frowned.

The rogue navi gave a bitter chuckle.

“Oohh you cut me to my core~!...news flash, dumbass, I'm a _darkloid_! What were you expecting? A hug and a kiss? Damn straight you should've left me alone. Took you long enough to catch on. You don't seem to be all that bright...you sure you didn't cheat your way into this program?"

She chewed the inside of her cheek to keep herself from saying something that would be counterproductive to her current goal. Of course she knew this wouldn't be easy, she just hadn't quite expected him to be _this_ hard headed...then again, what else _did_ she expect? She took another deep breath to calm herself before she dug the customized PET out of her pocket and placed it on the table in front of him. Like she hoped, it shut him up and caught his attention, yellow gleaming eyes trained on the device as she slid it toward his confinement. 

“Yeah, you’re right. You're a darkloid.” she said simply. “If you heard everything that went on, then you already know the situation. You don't have a lot of other options, but if you really want to, we can have you taken apart and we'll let you peacefully decay on the net. I certainly don't want to try to make anyone something they're not.”

“How noble of you.” he sneered, disdain dripping from his voice, “Look at you, you look like you're gonna piss yourself and you have the gall to push that… _thing_ in my face? I'll never be a human’s little lapdog.”

“You're looking at this all wrong. I don't want some kind of servant. I want a partner. You know, like...an equal. Besides, this isn't my life we're talking about, it's yours. I can always delete you and I'll get myself a Navi another time, it's not that big a deal. It’s your choice.”  
  
“Doesn't sound like much of a choice. And it certainly doesn't sound like anything between equals.” he growled, and soon the other swords that were slung over his shoulders came to life with opinions of their own. The yellow blade took the red's place in the torso.

“Oh come on, lighten up! She's actually kind of cute...I think we should do it!” he said to...himself? He obviously wasn't talking to her at the moment. She blinked, face reddening once more, especially when he turned back toward her and pointed, wriggling his fingers. “Hey, you're legal right? I'm down for this on the condition you polish m-” the yellow sword was dislodged and the one with the blue crossguard inserted himself into the torso with a disgusted groan.

“Shut up! You're a damn embarrassment.” he barked at the yellow blade on his shoulder, who seemed to be giggling, if Mint was seeing that right. She frowned, adjusting her lab coat and crossing her arms defensively.

“Listen, we didn't ask to be revived, and you need to find a better side project. We're not some kind of toy to tinker with for your amusement. You're in over your head, girl.” he said coldly and she squinted, having a hard time processing this. She certainly was beginning to feel out of her depth… They all seemed to be the same darkloid, but each blade had its own temperament, and were aware of their counterparts to boot.

 _Multiple head case…_ Famous’ words came to mind, and suddenly it made sense now. She thought he meant it as a joke of some kind but no, they are literally some kind of...symbiotic trio? Or something. She wasn't exactly sure what to call this type of deal. She shook her head, attempting to compose herself.

“T-the tinkering is done, so now it's just the...you know, the partnership..” she mumbled a bit, obviously still flustered. She was already reconsidering after meeting the yellow blade, not to mention the handful of crazy this darkloid was unabashedly revealing himself to be as a whole.

The red hilt had regained control of their body once more, seemingly more irritated than before. Apparently she had zoned out while they had begun bickering amongst themselves. The thing that shook her out of this state was the frustrated bellow that crackled through the glass.

“I hope you're happy now!” He snapped, rubbing his head. “Now they think this is actually a proposal worth accepting. Damn it…I’ve got a headache...”

“Do you have anything else to do? I mean...what do you have to lose by doing this?” she managed to get out, still eyeing him with mild confusion. 

“My dignity, for starters.” he huffed, at which the yellow sword wiggled gleefully, leering up through the glass.   
  
“Your virginity, for another!” he crooned, earning a hand reaching up and throttling his hilt. She wheezed, covering her reddening face as she was once again at a loss for how to react to that. Do navis even…?!... _No, that was something she did_ ** _not_** _need the answer to_.  
  
“Ignore this one, he's glitched in the head.” the red blade replied flatly as he grabbed the 'face' yellow crossguard, obviously the equivalent to pinching someone's lips shut.  
  
“I swear, you make one more comment like that and I'm ramming you up a mettaur’s ass!” he whispered harshly at the blade that was currently giggling between yelps of pain. The red seemed to sense another perverted comment coming on and tightened his grip, earning a distressed cry and finally the snickering stopped.  
  
“At last...I can hear myself think…” he grumbled, before he turned to Mint once more, eyes narrowed, “and you! Why don't you piss off already? Like I said, I'm not interested, so just delete me right now.”  
  
She deflated, a deep sigh escaping her. Maybe she was going about this all wrong...she drummed the table with her fingers, slouching a bit.  
  
“Is there absolutely nothing you want? Nothing I could do or give you that would make you consider helping me out?”  
  
He crossed his arms, tapping his nonexistent chin in thought. The blue hilt glared death at yellow to keep his mouth shut as they waited for red to speak.  
  
“You have any dark chips?”  
  
“Nope, those were all destroyed, and what's left of them is being researched in another lab..” dammit, Famous was right, who knew they still cared about the evil power-up?  
  
“You're useless…” he scoffed, looking away as the wheels in his head began turning. What exactly did these humans have to offer? What could they possibly give to a darkloid…  
  
Finally, he turned back to face her, a gleam in his eyes.  
  
“You said I was only at a percentage of my power. Restore me to my former state and maybe I'll consider your offer.”  
  
She frowned, knitting her brows together. “Sorry, can't do that. Your former state is kinda the whole reason why you're like this to begin with!”  
  
He waved her off, turning away once more. “Feh, like I said, damn useless. You've got nothing I want otherwise…”  
  
“Well....hold on...I can't promise anything now, but if you do good enough in this program and cooperate, maybe they'll consider returning you to full power and give you a little more freedom. Like, after you've proven that you won't be a threat.”  
  
The red blade recoiled in disgust. It sounded like an option worse than deletion. Would he have to pretend to be a good little navi, doing as he was told in the vain hopes he earned their trust?! The thought made him sick to his very code…  
  
...But really, what choice _did_ he have? How else would he get revenge on Lan and the others here otherwise? Was there any other way? Maybe he could pretend for a while, deception is one of the more enjoyable pastimes he didn't get to revel in often. After all, it'll make his inevitable betrayal that much more delicious, wouldn't it? But still, it sounded like a load of crap.  
  
“Why do I have any reason to believe they would allow this? They'd have to be the highest order of morons.”  
  
“They're not stupid, and it's more likely than you'd think. I heard there was another rogue navi who was rehabilitated. The problem would be YOU, if you don't want to give it a try. So what do you say?”  
  
He took another moment to deliberate this. As far as he could tell, it didn't seem like she was making this up. Whether or not it was a bluff, his hands were tied...  
  
“...It’s a deal.” he grumbled, and soon he dematerialized into pixels which faded from the glass container, before appearing in the same fashion on the cyan, formerly empty screen of the PET on the table.  
  
Mint almost collapsed. She couldn't believe he actually got in. Was that all it took?! She felt extra stupid for not bringing that offer up sooner, but between all the madness it had been hard to think. She could've hyperventilated from the rush of excitement and flurry of other emotions. She wanted to screech and go get Famous and throttle him, but she insisted on being professional about it. Or tried to anyways. Instead, she picked up the PET and twirled.  
  
“Don't make me change my mind!” he said gruffly, displeased with the motion. She stopped, glancing at the screen with a bashful chuckle.  
  
“Right, sorry...but this is so exciting, we're gonna make an awesome team, you'll see!”  
  
“I doubt it. And we're not a team! I'll handle myself, and you just….I don't care what you do, but don't get in my way! None of that 'operating' crap, you hear me?”  
  
“Gotcha!” she chirped with a grin, and he gave an exasperated sigh.  
  
“ _And don't make me look bad_.”  
  
“I don't think you need my help with that.”  
  
Somehow, his frown deepened even further, and she stifled a giggle. There was an awkward silence before she leaned in closer to get a better look at him in the PET and he leaned away from the screen with an annoyed groan.  
  
“WHAT?!”  
  
“So, how do you like it in there?”

“I don't. I can’t see how any navi would be comfortable with this. Damn fools.”  
  
“It's not so bad once you get used to it, I promise. I’m sure they'll eventually expand the amount of room you have in there.”  
  
Famous had noticed through the window of the next room over that she was talking to her PET, and he hurriedly ended his conversation on the phone to hop out of his chair and soon was at her side, looking down at the now occupied device in utter disbelief.  
  
They'd actually done it! He was in just as stupefied a state as she had been as he gawked down at the darkloid. Of course, the rogue navi took notice of the other human staring.  
  
“Take a damn picture why don't you!” he hissed.  
  
Famous blinked, not that it could be seen, and a small, crooked smirk tugged the corner of his mouth.  
  
“Quite a cheeky devil aren't you?” he chuckled, earning an annoyed growl from the darkloid.  
  
“This is all your fault...I'll make you suffer soon enough, mark my words..!”  
  
“I look forward to it,” Famous replied casually, turning back to Mint while the darknavi fumed, “I'd say this was a resounding success. How's the PET handling?”  
  
“It seems to be fully functional, though it might be a little cramped in there for him.”  
  
“Ah, it's doing its job then. Don't worry, it's specially made to confine a darkloid, but we have to see how it'll do. For now, think of this as a little time out corner for him if you will.”  
  
Mint stifled a guffaw at that, and the navi fumed.  
  
“You bastard, you made it like this on purpose?! Is this how you treat navis? Disgusting!”  
  
Famous adjusted his glasses, regarding the darknavi sternly.

“No, it's how we treat criminal navis and darkloids like yourself. You're not familiar with the law, but we have a little thing called probation. You gotta work your way up to the comforts we afford more trustworthy programs. So in other words, be a good boy and we'll give you more living space.”  
  
The new navi snarled at him, spitting several insults that made Mint look away in embarrassment. Famous quirked a brow. Well, the ex darkloid has an…interesting vocabulary. He reached over to the PET and adjusted its volume. Mint glanced down and could see the navi flailing and throwing a tantrum but couldn't hear it. She looked back up at Famous. He grinned.  
  
“That's a special feature for this PET.” he cleared his throat. “It’s been a long day, why don't you head home and get some rest? That is if you can manage with mister personalities here. Perhaps getting a little acquainted will iron a bit of that out.” that last part had a somewhat forced tone of hope, they both knew that wouldn't happen, but she appreciated the thought nonetheless. She nodded.

“Alright, be back here at your usual time tomorrow.” he said as he ruffled her hair.   
  
Mr. Famous watched her leave the office, resting his elbow in his hand, the other rubbing his chin.  
  
“That poor, poor girl. Out of all the navis she could've found…” he muttered, shaking his head. There was no way this was gonna go well, but he wanted to believe they could get something out of this.

 


End file.
